London, February 18, 2026, 09:04 GMT — Regular session
- RELX shares fall in early London trade, lagging the wider market
- Buyback purchases and executive share dealings feature in fresh filings
- Focus turns to the buyback timetable and the next set of company documents
RELX PLC shares fell 2% to 2,180 pence by 0904 GMT, giving back some of Tuesday’s rise as investors worked through a cluster of routine filings tied to the group’s buyback and executive share transactions. (https://www.investing.com/equities/reed-elsevier-plc)
The move matters because RELX is a heavyweight in the FTSE 100 and sits in the sweet spot investors have been paying up for: recurring subscription revenue, steady cash flow and regular capital returns. That mix tends to draw big, slow money — and it doesn’t take much for the stock to wobble when the tape gets busy.
The macro backdrop is also shifting again. Official data showed UK consumer price inflation eased to 3.0% in January from 3.4% in December, keeping rate-cut talk alive just as companies start to guide investors on 2026. (https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/january2026)
James Smith, an economist at ING, said this week’s labour market data kept the Bank of England “firmly on track for a March rate cut”. (https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/uk-wage-growth-slowed-end-2025-ons-says-2026-02-17/)
On the company side, RELX disclosed it bought 1.8 million shares on Feb. 17 through UBS AG’s London branch at a volume-weighted average price of 2,235.8306 pence — an average that weights each trade by its size. The shares will be held in treasury, meaning the company keeps them rather than cancelling them outright. (https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/relx-plc–rel/transaction-in-own-shares/9435037)
The purchase sits inside a larger, “non-discretionary” buyback programme — effectively an arrangement where a broker runs repurchases within pre-set rules — with RELX targeting £450 million of stock repurchases between Feb. 12 and March 20, according to a U.S. filing. (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/929869/000092986926000010/relx-20260212xex99d1.htm)
Separate filings also put executive share activity on screens. A regulatory announcement showed Chief Executive Officer Erik Engstrom held 1,327,129 ordinary shares/ADRs after a set of awards and transactions, and included a sale of 22,000 shares on Feb. 13 at 21.292744 pounds. (https://www.tradingview.com/news/reuters.com%2C2026-02-17%3Anewsml_RSQ2439Ta%3A0-reg-relx-plc-director-pdmr-shareholding/)
RELX reported its 2025 results last week and forecast another year of strong underlying growth in 2026, helped by analytics and decision tools across its business. “The continued evolution of artificial intelligence is enabling us to add more value to our customers,” Engstrom said. The group also proposed a 67.5 pence full-year dividend and said it planned £2.25 billion of buybacks in 2026. (https://www.relx.com/~/media/Files/R/RELX-Group/documents/press-releases/2026/results-2025-pressrelease.pdf)
RELX makes most of its money in Risk, Scientific, Technical & Medical (Elsevier), and Legal (LexisNexis), with a smaller but more cyclical Exhibitions arm. In Legal information and workflow tools, it competes with firms such as Thomson Reuters and Wolters Kluwer; in exhibitions it overlaps with groups like Informa.
The stock had been lifted a day earlier as the FTSE 100 closed at a record high, with traders leaning into rate-sensitive and tech-adjacent names after softer UK jobs data. RELX and Experian were among the gainers flagged in the session. (https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/ftse-100-ticks-up-soft-jobs-data-raises-rate-cut-bets-metal-prices-drag-miners-2026-02-17/)
But the setup cuts both ways. Any sign that customers slow renewals, or that rivals’ generative AI tools — systems that produce text and answers in plain language — change pricing power faster than expected could re-open the debate about growth and margins, even for a company with sticky products.
Investors next look to the company’s 2025 annual report, expected to be available from Feb. 19, and the pace of buybacks as the March 20 programme end-date approaches. The next Bank of England rate decision is due on March 19. (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/upcoming-mpc-dates)
